Charter Fishing Vessel Veracious also participated in this cruise (1004H).
This work programme forms part of the EU Project 'Survival' (C741), which aims to investigate the mortality of fish escaping from trawl cod-ends. The purpose of this part of the project (work-package 5) is to investigate seasonal variation in the cod-end selectivity and escape mortality of gadoid fish (cod, haddock and whiting). This work will be conducted at three distinct periods during the year, based on the Gadoid reproductive cycle:
Part a - February/March (pre-spawning)
Part b - May/June (post Spawning)
Part c - August/September (resting)
Each field exercise for this work-package will take place in two phases: Phase I - Site Set up; and Phase II - Experiment.
In conjunction with this work, and as part of work-package 3 (WP 3), there will be an investigation of the rate of escapes from the trawl cod-end at different phases of the fishing operation, in particular during haul-back. This will include an investigation of the escape mortality of fish escaping from the cod-end during haulback.